Early Morning on the Platte

6:00 AM.  It’s about 90 minutes until sunrise.  We shuffle down the path, our steps lit by our red headlamps. We are moving parallel to the river, with the Cottonwoods and Willows between us and the water.

The cranes are softly murmuring as we arrive and quietly enter the blind. The scene is one of dark shapes and lines lit by moonlight.

With normal light still hours away, it's an excellent opportunity for long-exposure photography to capture the unfolding beauty!

An Explosion of Sound!

We've just returned from a week in the Central Platte Valley of Nebraska, where we watched the annual Migration of the Sandhill Cranes. Over a million of these birds gather from across the Southwest (Texas, New Mexico, and Northern Mexico) to rest and refuel before continuing their journey to the breeding grounds of Canada, Alaska, and Siberia.

The Crane Trust estimates the number of birds in the Central Platte (roughly Grand Island to Overton) weekly. On March 17th, It counted 730,000 birds, a record for the number of birds at one time. The count is done by a trained team in aircraft, using visual observation and photography.

This video is from a blind along Platte at Rowe Sanctuary. It can give you an idea of what those numbers look and sound like (play with the sound ON!).

Grand Teton - The Mormon Row

We've just finished cleaning up and putting away the camping gear from our trip to Grand Teton National Park. And I can tell you that the weather and the mountains were 'Grand'!

We went to many of the iconic photo locations and found a few more on our own. Here are photos of the Moulton Barns and the Teton Range from Mormon Row

The Thomas Moulton Barn

The John Moulton Barn

The name Mormon Row comes from the members of the Mormon, or Latter-Day Saints, faith that came into Jackson Hole in the 1890's from Idaho to claim land under the Homestead Act. The life was hard, but the settlers persevered. Their success is seen in the barns built by the Moulton brothers and the Chambers Homestead.

History of settlement in Grand Teton National Park